OUC Half-Marathon

On December 5th I finished my first officially timed half-marathon which was held in downtown Orlando and the surrounding areas. It was a relatively flat race course and the conditions were about 58 degrees with a light rain. The great thing about the race was that we showed up about 20 mins before race time, with chips already in our shoes, so we did not have to check in with anyone. Me and my sister just walked up to the starting line and got ready.

The start was at 7am which correlated with the sun coming up. I tried to settle down and come out of the gate slow early on and build up, but after running 2 miles in 15 minutes it was evident that I had come out way faster than expected. Around miles 3-5 I settled into a good stride and just tried to keep an even pace without my breathing getting too heavy. Around mile 7 the pack widened and I noticed a foreign runner who seemed to have a good pace and kept looking at his watch. I asked him what he was shooting for and he said "1:40" which is approximately what my goal would be. I decided to just stick with him as my pacer - and I began to follow him.

Before Mile 8 we passed the Fashion Square Mall and I was startled by a car accident that happened right in front of me. A lady backed into another car because she didn't look at her rear view mirror (she couldn't go forward because we were running our race on the road!). This little shot of adrenaline actually got me on my toes and I broke out of the trance I was in. I realized that my split was going to put me at a sub-1:40 half-marathon and I began to try and conserve energy because I did not know what was going to happen down the stretch. I did not want to hit the wall and miss my goal of running a sub-1:44 marathon (which is what 8-minute miles would be).

Miles 8-10 were down some brick streets that hurt my feet because of the uneven west surface. I even picked up my speed somewhat so I can get through this section. Amazingly, my fastest mile was towards Mile 9 when I did approx. a 7 minute mile. This was way faster than I had run a half-marathon before in any practice and I was beginning to be concerned about the last 3 miles. Around Mile 10 I tried psyching myself into kicking in another gear, but even after speeding up a little I realized that holding my speed would be a great finish nonetheless. It was a bit surreal to be on Orange Ave and when we turned down Anderson I started 'searching' for the next mile marker. I know I am hurting when I start searching because the miles seem longer, the minutes seem slower and the legs feel heavier.

The final two miles were in Thornton park, down Central, and then around Lake Eola to the finish line. I had to suck it up and try to maintain a decent pace for the last 2 miles and then sprint the end. It felt good sprinting through the finish line, and I ended up clocking a 1:41 half-marathon which placed me 31st out of 145 males in my age group. Only the top 5 individuals were awarded medals but knowing that I put as much as I had into it was good enough for me on that day. So now I have a Ragnar, Half-Marathon, and Full Marathon under my belt. What's next? I'm not sure - but I have proven that I can maintain a pretty good speed at a mid-range distance. Now if only I could stretch it out over a Full Marathon?